Bad idea to get domain name where the dot com is taken?

Not necessarily. I would not suggest it in case the .com domain owner is in exactly same business than you. In that case people accidentally writing wrong url can result in competition getting your client. Also check if this domain owner ranks anywhere in first page on keywords that you target, if not you are good to go.

I think it is best to have a .com domain name. But if you are set on a particular name you could look for an alternative. The new domain names are really snazzy, like domain.guru , domain,christmas , domain.photography etc. depending on your niche of course.

I wouldn't do it.

Especially if that .com version is an established brand. They could end up taking you to court and taking the domain away from you. So all your work will be for nothing.

I think its not a terrible idea, but I wouldnt suggest it anyway, people are more used to dot com, and if you try to promote a dot net or any other domain you could end up giving away traffic to others people website.

Plus, there could be some copyright things to take into account, and as other has said, if the dot com has a similar business to yours, that could also be a problem.

Does not mater if you have a .com.net or .info what matters is what you have on the website/blog

There was a myth going around ages ago about if you had a .net or any other type of domain it would not rate total BS

Remember all is fair in love and war if you have a .net on the same niche just don't steal the info on there site and you should be fine

Jason

There is not right or wrong answer to your question.
It depends on too many things.

For the most part, if there is a market, good stuff works, no matter the .whatever.

I'll tell you this, I own quite a few .nets, .orgs and .infos because I couldn't get the .com and I've done fine for a long time.

In fact, one of my most successful sites is a .info!!

Hey there


Stick to the popular ones


.net, .org etc

I'd never buy anything other than a .com. Especially when the .com version is established.

Many times when the .com is taken you'll see it has been bought speculatively. It will just be parked and will have no real effect in the market so just go ahead and start using the .net .org or whatever....it will make no real difference.

It doesn't mean anything. If you really want to get the .COM domain name, try a new name.

I'd say it depends what "type" of site is on the .com and if it's currently active.
It is a functioning company already, are they selling products, an individual?

Doesn't matter in the long run, imo. What matters is you move forward and do not waste another minute on this

- Robert Andrew

Thanks for your replies.

Well, to provide more info, I'm interested in creating a video web site(similar to youTube), and I have a name in mind, but, I'll use an example, for instance, I'll use the word 'horrible' in place of the one I'm looking to get (and researched). I'm interested in the domain name 'horrible.video' for the video site.

So, upon researching, it seems that 'horrible.com' is being used, and apparently that site does some type of data anaylsis, so, not really a direct competitor, but the site shows that the word 'horrible' has registered trademark symbol (maybe regarding some data analysis proceedure?), so, if I get "horrible.video" as my domain name, is there a conflict because of the trademark?

Also, 'horrible.net' is an ecommerce cart & seo marketing site. Not really competition (and apparently not bothered by the other guys' trademark). Additionally, 'horriblevideo.com' is taken, but not being used (yet)/parked. And 'horriblevideo.net' forwards to 'horriblevideo.tv' which is a video site, similar to youTube.

So, based on this research of similar sites using the word, do you think getting 'horrible.video' as a domain name for a web site would be a bad idea?

It all depends what you want the domain for. An established brick and mortar business? Then you really want the .com to look professional. However, a local business could benefit from the country domain suffix (e.g., domain.fr for a French business).

If it's just a domain where you're not concerned with branding (e.g., a domain to drive traffic for CPA offers) then most any domain will do and the cheaper the better.